Nozomi Ohno is a practitioner of kyūdō, the Japanese martial art of archery, which has its origins in that nation’s history dating back to the end of the Stone Age on the archipelago, when the use of the bow first made its appearance.

In this short film by Alan Algee, the Kyoto-born Ohno, who had just turned 21 at the time of filming, and having realized a milestone of three years of training as a kyūdō artist, spoke about her engagement with budō (the martial arts) as not only a path to personal development and self-discovery, but also as a means towards realizing and preserving a cultural identity — of manifesting and protecting the essence of being Japanese.

“Cannot Forget Our Heart” was an installment in the larger “Kyoto” project by Algee, in which the American filmmaker sought to gain an understanding of his adopted city, and its unique intersection of ancient and modern worlds, through a four-part series of short films. The project was commissioned and produced by the in-house creative studio of VSCO, and it was released as part of the tech company’s original content programming venture in 2016.